Merkel, Steinmeier in final push for German votes

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier battled on Saturday to win over a large pool of undecided voters on the last day of campaigning before a federal election.

Merkel told a rally in Berlin, hours after arriving on an overnight flight from a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, that her conservatives must use the final campaign hours to convince the one-third of voters who pollsters say have yet to make up their minds.

"Every vote counts," said Merkel, 55, Germany's first woman chancellor and the only one to have grown up in communist East Germany.

Security has been tight after a series of al Qaeda videos this week threatening a "rude awakening" for Germany if voters back a government that supports keeping troops in Afghanistan, where 4,200 Germans are stationed with NATO-led forces.

Police in the southern city of Stuttgart said on Friday they had arrested a 25-year old Turkish man they suspect of posting one of the threatening videos on the Internet.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned European countries to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan in an audio tape with both English and German sub-titles that heightened security concerns on the eve of the election.